Boudreau: Ovechkin “wasn’t benched”

Bruce Boudreau can’t believe all the attention this whole Alex Ovechkin “benching” story is getting.

Besides, it wasn’t even a benching, said the Washington coach, referring to the end of Tuesday night’s game versus the Ducks when he left on Ovechkin on the bench late in the third period with the Caps trailing by one and the goalie pulled.

“It’s all about accountability, but it was way overblown,” Boudreau told reporters today. “[Ovechkin] wasn’t benched or anything; he just wasn’t chosen to go out the last minute. I’ve done it many different times with many different players. You have a hunch and you go with it. I just thought the other guys were going to score.”

Guess it all depends how you define “benching.” Boudreau obviously defines it as a punitive measure as opposed to simply leaving a player on the bench in favor of other players. Players, it should be noted, who got the tying goal.

So why did the story receive so much play in the media?

“There was no football, there was no basketball, there was nothing else going on,” Boudreau said. “So they made a big deal out of nothing.”

But was it really that ridiculous for the media to react the way it did when you consider what else Boudreau had to say?

“Like I’ve said in the past, 99.9 percent of the time Alex is the first guy I even think of,” he said. “If you look at all my notes, even for that game, when I’ve drawn up a play quite frankly, he’s the one that’s on it. But it’s a different story sometimes at the time that it’s happening, and I just felt that other line was playing so good offensively.”

So 99.9 percent of the time Ovechkin is the first player Boudreau thinks of when the Caps need a goal. And he’s wondering why all the fuss when Ovechkin doesn’t even crack the coach’s top six?

Sorry, not buying it. Boudreau probably did think other players gave his team the best chance to score, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t sending Ovechkin a message at the same time.